


Aces

by lochTenderness (theseourbodies)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28352580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/lochTenderness
Summary: Two almost-made-its meet in their second year of high school
Relationships: Bokuto Koutarou & Ojiro Aran
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Aces

People say: _Just missed the top three. Almost made it. Next year, maybe! It's an honor just to be included in the top five._

Honestly, it doesn't bother Aran that much, what people say. It _is_ an honor to be recognized, to see his name printed boldly next to the hardest opponents he's ever faced and has yet to face. It _is_ incredible to walk down the same halls as those big shot names and hear people whispering his name because they recognize him because they've seen his face in magazines. He's one of the top five wing spikers in the nation. He isn't sure he likes it all the time, but he sure doesn't hate it, either.

He hates it even less the day that there's a bright, happy shout instead of all that mumbling. The preliminary rounds have just started, and Aran's been acting as an ace in every way but name since Inter-High. It's the fall of Aran's second year; the Miya Double Fiasco is in full swing in the Inarizaki VB club, so watching a boy accidentally plow through two teams and almost clip a Vabochan isn't even the strangest thing that Aran has seen _today_. Even when the boy ends up almost falling at Aran's feet, Aran can't really muster up anything but some honest curiosity. The boy's grinning like crazy as Aran blinks at him.

"Hey, hey, Ojiro, right? Ojiro Aran? I'm Bokuto Koutarou!" says Bokuto Koutarou; Aran would recognize that hair anywhere. Bokuto's another name that people haven't stopped muttering about since Inter-High.

Aran looks at the happily panting boy in front of him and then looks back at the mild trail of destruction behind him. Does he really want to be Ojiro Aran right now?

"...Yeah, that's me. You're Bokuto-kun?"

"Just call me Koutarou! We're both in the top five, I think we know each other pretty well already," says Bokuto with absolute confidence and an over-exagerrated wink. This is of course completely not true, since Aran has only just recognized him. He hasn't had much time to dwell on the other members of the top five that much; there are still nights where he stays up hours at night, beaming goofily up at his bedroom ceiling just at the thought of what people are saying about him.

"Ok, Koutarou," Aran says, because he's a pretty friendly guy and frankly, he's learned to roll with the punches with excitable dudes like this. 

"Can I call you Aran?!" Koutarou asks, more excited than Aran thinks he deserves, himself. He straightens up and Aran gets the whole picture for the first time-- the hair really is bizarre, but Aran's actually met and spent time with Ushijima and Sakusa already. They're both perfectly normal looking but they're also two of the weirdest guys Aran has ever spent time with. At least Bokuto let's people know right at first glance that he's _an original._

Aran self-consciously scrubs his hand back along his head and the perfectly normal, carefully trimmed hair there. He sitll feels like he's the exception and not the rule.

"Sure, Koutarou. Did you come over here just to meet me?"

"Well yeah," says Koutarou, and Aran feels a shiver down his spine when he finally locks eyes with him. Intense is an understatement. "You and the rest of those top-five guys are the greatest wing-spikers in the country. Why wouldn't I want to meet all of you?"

There's a beat where Aran waits for the rest of it-- the 'even though you didn't make the top three'. It doesn't come, but Aran waits for so long that it gets weird. 

"Aran?"

Koutarou's also an almost-made-it, Aran realizes, caught by the set of the other boy's jaw. Koutarou's out here, hungry and wanting, just like Aran secretly has been. People have been saying the same shit to Koutarou, and he's been swallowing it just like Aran has.

"Hey, have you met any of the others yet?" Aran asks suddenly, feeling wild, reckless. His heart is pounding like a game's about to start. Koutarou's grin, which had slipped a little while Aran got himself together, goes bright again.

"Only Wakatsu!"

"Good-- How's about you point him out to me, and I'll find Ushiwaka and Sakusa for you?"

"Really?"

Aran finds himself grinning, too. "Yeah!" 

Funnily enough, it isn't that bad to have a guy like Koutarou at your heels, Aran thinks. It's kind of nice, actually, to not be so alone out here.

"Alright, alright, let's go Aran!!"


End file.
